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UA Anesthesiology Residency Program

Welcome from Residency Program Director

Congratulations on selecting anesthesiology for your residency training. The field of anesthesiology is fun, exciting, challenging, and allows for a very unique form of patient care and interaction. The specialty is also rapidly evolving and changing, with continual opportunity for growth and scholarship. As the science and art of medicine advances, so must we, with incorporation of new knowledge and technology into our practice. The importance of starting your career with a strong foundation cannot be stressed enough with so many changes in our understanding of medicine, our use of technology, and how we take care of patients. At the University of Arizona, we are focused on training and educating inquisitive and motivated new doctors into becoming resourceful, knowledgeable, and complete perioperative physicians.

The Anesthesiology Residency Program at the University of Arizona is a three year advanced program in beautiful Tucson, Arizona. Our core curriculum has residents rotating at both North and South University Hospital campuses as well as a surgery center and VA hospital. Our CA-1 residents spend most of the first year in the “Main OR” delivering anesthetics to both healthy and very sick patients undergoing a wide variety of surgical procedures, including organ transplant, thoracic surgery, and neurosurgery among many others. During the CA-2 year, residents spend increasing amounts of time on dedicated specialty services, including critical care, obstetrics, regional, and cardiac anesthesia. CA-3’s spend most days participating in the most challenging of cases, whether that be neonatal cardiac surgery, neurovascular procedures, or “crash” C-sections.

In addition, we have an aggressive board-focused didactic program, which includes monthly reading assignments, self-assessment quizzes, and daily morning lectures. Every Wednesday, residents attend Grand Rounds, which can include diverse subjects from morbidity and mortality conference, oral boards preparation, guest lecture, to presentations from residents returning from medical missions. With the Anesthesiology written boards now being separated into two exams, oral boards, and a life-time of re-credentialing exams, the relevance of a strong didactic program at the start of your career has never been more important.

Unquestionably, our best program attribute has been the quality and dedication of our resident physicians. Our residents come from all over the country, with many having interests and hobbies served well here in the southwest. We thank you for your interest in our program and look forward to invite well qualified candidates to visit our program, meet our outstanding residents and faculty, and experience exactly what a Tucson winter really means.